On The Rez Essay

On The Rez Essay

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In the essay “On the Rez” which is written by Ian Frazier, the author tells us about life near the
Indian Reservations. Life there can be very though, especially when some of your neighbors treat you
with no dignity all because of your color and ethic group. The author then tells us various types of racial
discrimination that the Indians felt around the Indian reservations, but the main story is about how a
fourteen year old high school student was able change the hatred that was around her reservation, all
from a single action that happened in a basketball game. The name of this fourteen year old high school
who changed everything around her reservation is SuAnne Big Crow. She was only a freshman but she
was able to change so much. During the fall of 1988, the Pine Ridge Basketball team, which is a female
basketball team made up of Indians, went to the South Dakotan town of Lead to play a basketball game
against the local high school team. Frazier then tells us that the “place where Pine Ridge used to get
harassed regularly was the high school gymnasium in Lead, South Dakota”(592). When the Pine Ridge
team played against Lead, the Lead fans started to harass them. They were shouting at the Pine Ridge
team with pure anti-Indian phrases and pure hatred. When the Pine Ridge team was about to enter the
basketball court, the tallest member and high school senior, Doni De Cory was to afraid to enter the
court. But SuAnne Big Crow, who was only a freshman at the time, was not afraid, instead she had a leap
of imagination. A leap of imagination is when you think you have an insolvable problem, about to give
up, and then- the solution appears. That is what happened to SuAnne, instead of givin...

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this coup was an act not of war but of peace”(593) and “SuAnne’s coup strike was an offering an
invitation”(593). What Frazier is telling us is that SuAnne invited the Lead fans to share in the culture of
the Oglala, she wanted them to be friends with her people not enemy , and because it was an act of
peace, it changed the relationship between the Oglala and the town of Lead for good not evil. This offer
of friendship was received by the people of Lead and they accepted it, and the Oglala and the people of
Lead became good and friendly neighbors.

In conclusion, it takes only one person at the right time, place, and moment to change the future
between two peoples, and because of the act of bravely and pure courage that SuAnne Big Crow did
when she took off that warm-up she was able to turn an air full of hatred into good will and friendship.

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- In the essay “On the Rez” written by Ian Frazier, the author tells us about life near the Indian Reservations and how one girl was able to change the views of her neighbors. Life there can be very tough for Native Americans, especially when some of their neighbors treat them with no dignity all because of their color and ethic group. Frazier then tells us various types of racial discrimination that the Indians felt around the Indian reservations. But the main story is about how a fourteen year old high school student was able to eliminate the hatred that was around her reservation, all because of a single action which happened in a basketball game.... [tags: Racial Relations, Indian Reservations]

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- Don Quixote is a classic novel although now a days many may not be entirely familiar with it. The story of Don Quixote is filled with legendary actions that have survived our native tough. The phrase and labels that tell the title come from someone deeply impractical. Don Quixote at the age of fifty has not quite had what one would call a wild life, so far. He has never been married and still lives at home. He has however found his calling in life, the profession of knighthood: "he was spurred on by the conviction that the world needed his immediate presence..." (Book 1, Part 2).... [tags: Book Reviews]